India considering legal gambling and sports betting

A gambling bill might soon be drafted in the Asian country as support for regulating the market keeps growing.

India.- The Law Commission of India is analising the possibility of legalising gambling in casinos and sports betting, as reported by the Hundustan Times. The idea has been on the table for a while now but, apparently, a draft gambling bill is currently “under serious consideration”.

India’s gambling busines is expected to bring the government thousands of crores in revenue as its worth is estimated to be around 300 thousand crore (US$45.01 billion). Said income would be a major factor to get the government to legalise gambling in the asian country.

Although not much progress was acomplished, this topic has been discussed recently: late last year, former Justice, and Law Commission chairman, Balbir Singh Chauhan confirmed that the institution was examining “all legal aspects of betting in sports.”

Sports betting also received major support last July: India’s Supreme Court, following recommendations made by the Lodha Committee, gave its approval for its legalisation and signed a 143-page document agreeing that sports betting does not imply match fixing. However, the Parliament will be the one to decide sports betting legality as well as casino gambling’s fate. Currently, Public Gaming Act 1867 regulates the market, but this seems to be about to change.

Betting and gambling “is already happening through the internet and it is hard to stop in the absence of an updated law” as a member of the Law Commission said to the Hundustan Times. That being said, a draft gambling bill for the Indian market might be seeing light in the near future.